Posts Tagged ‘affordable housing’
Phillips Community Listening Session Focused on Encampments
By JANA METGE, JAMES TRICE and DONNA PUSUSTA NESTE On March 30, a meeting entitled “A Listening Session About Encampments in Phillips and Minneapolis” organized by a Phillips Neighborhood group calling themselves Phillips Neighborhood Safety Coalition took place at the East Phillips Park Community and Cultural Center. Facilitator James Trice, a resident of Phillips for 25 years, welcomed all and went over the ground rules for a respectful meeting, which it was. 78 people signed in, however there were an estimated 100 in attendance. AIM Patrol members mingled with the crowd to let everyone know they were welcome and that their presence was important. Attendees were invited to add printed materials to an information table in which various perspectives were represented, from a harm reduction model for safe injection sites to a draft on policy and procedure for encampments. Five community members gave testimony on their experiences with encampments. Mike Forcia, a leader in the AIM Patrol, spoke on healing the Native community and the Dakota land we are on, and on the need for jobs, culturally specific programs for youth, as well as culturally specific treatment centers for addiction, mental health, and historical trauma. He said that we can build a hundred little houses, but his people won’t leave the camps unless their opioid addictions are addressed. Joani Essenburg, resident of Phillips and founder of Banyan Youth Center, related how her anger was initially focused upon those living in encampments, but changed into frustration with the government’s lack of response. She spoke of the need for the government not to ignore what is happening and instead provide for encampment residents’ basic needs. Desmond McCloud, a youth and former resident of the Near North camp, spoke of his struggle with addiction and the need for dignified housing which is safe, healthy, and provides support services for those struggling to get clean. Kent Bakken, a [...]
May Random alley News 22
Nellie Stone Johnson/ Hennepin County Library Special Collections By Lindsey Fenner The Women’s Environmental Institute Is Offering Free Classes for Phillips Folks: WEI offers a variety of courses and workshops on gardening, farming, herbalism, food preservation and more. People who work, live, play or pray in Phillips can take these events for free. Most classes are at the Amador Hill Farm Campus in North Branch. Check out the class schedule and learn more about the Women's Environmental Institute: w-e-i.org. Contact Jerry at jerry@w-e-i.org for more information on how to get free registration. Urban Farm Veto Upheld by City Council: On March 24, the Minneapolis City Council upheld Mayor Frey’s veto of CM Chavez’ motion supporting the East Phillips Urban Farm by a vote of 7-6. Although CM Chavez said he hoped to bring a new motion forward at the next full council meeting on April 14, no motion was made. According to the East Phillips Neighborhood Institute, the community group organizing the Urban Farm, they are in negotiations with the City of Minneapolis with a meeting scheduled for April 26. So far EPNI has rejected various proposals from the City. One would require the organization to come up with $14 million by this summer to purchase the full site. Another proposal would sell EPNI 2.9acre of the site for $1 but would include the demolition of the Roof Depot building. Midtown Farmers Market Opens Saturday May 7 at Renovated Plaza: After three years at a temporary location, the Midtown Farmers Market will be returning to Lake and Hiawatha at a new civic plaza. The project was a collaboration between Hennepin County, Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board, the Corcoran Neighborhood Organization, and the developers of the newly built apartment complex near the plaza. The new plaza is next to the Lake Street/Midtown Light rail station. The Market is open Saturdays May-October from 8am to 1pm and Tuesdays June-October 3pm-6pm. Vendors accept [...]
Ebenezer Land
By DWIGHT HOBBES “Affordable housing...is a misnomer of sorts: affordability implies the ability to pay for something given your budget”, think tank Cato Institute noted in a 2016 blog. Anyone of modest means looking for someplace to live who has run into what”™s being marketed as “affordable” can tell you just what a misnomer that is. It begs the cynical retort, affordable to whom? On top of which, rents and income have gone in opposite directions for some time and the contagion certainly didn”™t help, putting people out of work left and right. Ebenezer Park Apartments (photo courtesy of Ebenezer) Enter Ebenezer Park Apts., which doesn”™t solve that problem for everyone, but does give the elderly and disabled, including deaf tenants, a sorely needed break. Starting with the wallet, but, importantly, not ending there. Paramount, it goes without saying, is the difference between dispiritedly perusing ads for places priced out of your range and being asked one-third of your income ”“ whatever that happens to be. Plus, there”™s no application fee. It defies reason as how companies and organizations, whose selling card is affordability, charge at least $35, non-refundable, with a straight face just to fill out an application. Claiming it”™s to cover the background check is just so much bilge water. Ebenezer can find out whether you got booked for loitering and doesn”™t pocket a dime in the process. We”™re not talking public housing, which generally, how little you pay, is no bargain. Shelterforce.org documents, "Public housing , to a cycle of government neglect and under-funding which, in turn, led to poor construction design, inadequate maintenance, racial segregation, stigmatization, and further concentration of the very poor." In parts of Minneapolis, it also fosters veritable drug and prostitution franchises. Conversely, Ebenezer is a [...]
September Random alley News
By Lindsey Fenner and Laura Hulscher All the Ward 6 and Ward 9 City Council Candidates on the Ballot in November: Candidates for City of Minneapolis elections had an August 10 deadline to file to be on the November ballot. Candidates for Ward 6 City Council (which includes Ventura Village and Phillips West in the Phillips neighborhood: Jamal Osman (incumbent) and A. Bihi. Candidates for Ward 9 City Council (which includes East Phillips and Midtown Phillips in the Phillips Neighborhood): Mickey Moore, Yussuf Haji, Brenda Short, Ross Tenneson, Carmen Means, Jason Chavez, Alfred "AJ" Flowers Jr., and Jon Randall Denison. Look for a City Council candidate questionnaire in upcoming editions of the alley! Long Vacant 628 East Franklin to Be Developed into Affordable Housing: City of Lakes Community Land Trust (CLCLT) and Hope Community have entered into an agreement with the City of Minneapolis to turn the historic vacant building at 628 East Franklin Avenue into perpetually affordable housing. The building has been vacant for over 20 years, as various redevelopment plans have fallen through. The plan submitted by CLCLT in partnership with Hope Community will renovate the gutted building into seven condo units: six 3-bed, 2-bath units and one 1-bed, 1-bath unit, affordable to households at or below 60% Area Median Income. Hope Community operates over 200 affordable housing units in the Phillips neighborhood, including the nearby South Quarter affordable housing community at Franklin and Portland. Drop In Behavioral Health Center Now Open at 1800 Chicago: Hennepin County”™s new Behavioral Health Clinic is open to anyone 18 and older needing help with mental health or substance use. Services include urgent care and physical screening; Housing, cash and food support; and Mental health and substance use services such as Mental health screening and diagnostic assessmentsComprehensive screening for addiction disordersCase management and care [...]
